Hillary Clinton (CNN, July 8): “I will call for white people, like myself, to put ourselves in the shoes of those African-American families, who fear every time their children go somewhere, who have to have the talk about … how to really protect themselves, when they are the ones who should be expecting protection from encounters with the police. I’m going to be talking to white people. I think we are the ones who have to start listening to the legitimate cries that are coming from our African-American fellow citizens, and we have so much more to be done, and we have got to get about the business of doing it. We can’t be engaging in hateful rhetoric or incitement of violence. We need to bring people together.”
and some more from last night’s interview with judy woodruff pbs newhour:
HILLARY CLINTON (D),….And I’m not sure of all the reasons why we are witnessing this kind of violence. And we have got to look at it broadly. What happened in Dallas, what’s happening to other police officers in our country is absolutely outrageous.
We have got to do much more to protect and respect the police. And we have to do much more to make sure that citizens in our country, particularly African-Americans, feel respected and protected by the police.
I think we have got to listen to each other. We need a conversation. White people need to be listening to African-Americans about what it feels like to live with, you know, fear and anxiety, to be profiled, to worry about what will happen to their children when they go out to play or out on a date or go for a drive.
We have to listen to the fears of our police officers, who get up every day and do a dangerous job, like the police in Dallas who ran toward the shooting when it broke out after a peaceful protest.
I’m going to do everything I can in this campaign to try to find common ground, bring people together. And I have got some specific ideas about what we can do for criminal justice reform. We need national guidelines about the use of force, particularly lethal force.
We need to work with the 18,000 police departments in our country, some of whom are real models and others should be learning from about how they de-escalate tension, rather than turning a routine traffic stop into a killing.
And, of course, we need to investigate the implicit bias that, unfortunately, too many of us still have. And when it’s an implicit bias in a police officer, it can lead to an escalating situation.
So, we have got work to do. Certainly, our elected officials, our leaders in our communities, but really all of us as Americans have a stake in trying to listen respectfully to each other and, you know, really try to find ways we can contribute to ending this violence that is stalking our nation.
[….]
And I think, too, there has got to be a national conversation. And it can’t be just elected officials. We need people in communities talking to each other. You know, during the primary campaign in Kentucky, I had a wonderful experience one Sunday morning going to an African-American church.
And it just so happened, the day I was there, they were being visited by a white church. So, you had a mixed choir. You had both preachers addressing the congregation. You had people shaking hands and exchanging views and talking about their lives.
You know, that may sound easy, but it’s hard in lots of places in our country. And it needs to happen not just on Sunday. It needs to happen every day.
And, as a white person, I want to make clear that whites have to listen. We have to recognize, you know, many of the fears and anxieties that our African-American, our Latino and others in our society feel. We saw the terrible shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, our LGBT friends.
I mean, this cuts across so many of the divides in our country. And it should send a clarion call to every single one of us. We do not want to live like this. We don’t want people, any American, living in fear. We don’t want our police living in fear.
And if we want to end that, we’re going to have to work together.
wall st journal’s ‘Daily Show’ Host Trevor Noah: ‘You Can Be Pro-Cop and Pro-Black’
…he also used his air time to remind the citizens of his adopted country that we don’t have to have such, well, black-and-white opinions on certain issues:
“It always feels like in America, it’s like, if you take a stand for something, you automatically are against something else,” said Noah.
He continued: “If you’re pro-Black Lives Matter, you’re assumed to be anti-police, and if you’re pro-police, then you surely hate black people. It seems that it’s either pro-cop and anti-black, or pro-black and anti-cop, when in reality, you can be pro-cop and pro-black, which is what we all should be.”
Noah’s views seemed to directly echo those of his “Daily Show” predecessor, Jon Stewart, who, in December 2014, said, “You can have great regard for law enforcement and still want them to be held to high standards.”
Looking to January and dreaming of a Dem Congress and President, would there be enough votes to reinstate the ban on combat assault weapons? I tend to think not. I would hope so, but the cynic in me tells me that many Dems are very weak on returning sense to America.
The buildings in downtown Dallas were light up in blue last night.
crackers – Yes, maybe every Tuesday instead of a national day of meditation. Maybe we need to shut down for an hour a day of quiet time.
Folks that worked with Friday’s lone gunman said he was a hothead and needed mental help. If they hadn’t sent Johny Five in with an explosive to stop him, it was reported that he had bomb-making materials at his house and may have done the same to others. He was kicked out of a New Black Panthers chapter in Houston for having violent views.
I wonder if this will finally get the ball rolling on mental health help and a ban on assault weapons? It didn’t happen when people were killed watching movies, when children were killed in their classrooms, or, when people were killed at Pulse having fun with their friends.
It seems the lives of five officers may carry more clout than the much higher body-count in Orlando. Maybe it’s just because this is the fresh news story.
There was a wonderful victim relief chaplain on TV this morning’s news. She should have a show.
One guy in the march was carrying an (A-15?) rifle. When the shooting started, he turned in his gun to an officer. He was hauled in for questioning. His pic was all over social media and he’s still trying to clear his name. I wonder if he still thinks open carry is a good idea?
I expect that there will be a woman in the White House, a very closely divided Senate, maybe tied, and a pugn House. No significant gun control legislation, no assault weapons ban, same old shit. ?
Wow! Dale Hansen (local, ABC sportscaster) really made a powerful editorial. I’m guessing it won’t link and I will lose my connection, but it was powerful. (And as a bonus, he called the comments of the Lt Gov foolish.)
Yep, as I suspected. Well,
Dale Hansen: An Attack on Our Basic Humanity is worth a listen if you care to google it.
here’s the link ..
Hansen Unplugged: ‘An attack on our basic humanity’
Craig – Thanks.
FYI – Dan Patrick (Lt Gov & fool) called the protesters hypocrits for needing the police to protect them. To fool, I will add jerk.
On the light side, Hansen’s editorial got me thinking about the darkly hilarious post Nash once wrote for us about mass killings becoming a regular section on the nightly news, just like weather.
Which got me thinking again about what happened to Nash? I’ve tried emailing him a few times but no response. Does anyone have any more contact info for him that you can try?
It’s time that policemen were taught that the folks who pay their salaries are not enemies.
The police scanner in the Philando Castile case
http://www.kare11.com/mb/news/family-of-philando-castile-speak-about-police-scanner-audio/268056893
Good for everyone with a platform who is speaking up. The Republicans are fools for trying to villainize Black Lives Matters they should take a page from the Kochs… if you can’t beat them coopt them.
I don’t know why everyone is shocked at the militaristic bent of the Safety Services they consider themselves para-military. In SF a big step In the 1970’s Charles Gain was chief of the SF police and he did everything he could to de-miitarize the force and was met with resistence at every turn. The SF police department is still dealing with internal issues of racism sexism etc and there have been several questionable shootings. The force is very diverse and has a lot of younger members but for some reason the problems carry over.
The Obama administration has been looking at standards in policing and since a lot of police money can come from the Feds they do have some sway. It should be made a priority. I don’t think many people understand the magnitude of the impact on communities of color.
If repubs don’t think black lives matter, why do they spend so much effort preventing Blacks from voting ?
just about everything in this Pew Poll is bad news for Trump — he might even come in third behind Gary Johnson with young voters
usatoday:
“I believe the Dallas Police Department is one of the finest in the nation — and this incredibly diverse city can bridge any divide,” Biden said Saturday, delivering President Obama’s weekly radio address while the president is in Warsaw for a summit of NATO leaders.
“So when an assassin’s bullet targeted the police force in Dallas, it touched the soul of the nation. Those killed and wounded were protecting the safety of those who were peacefully protesting against racial injustices in the criminal justice system,” he said.
Biden also expressed sympathy with the those protesters, saying they were “marching against the kind of shocking images we saw in St. Paul and Baton Rouge — and have seen too often elsewhere — of too many black lives lost.”
[….]
“Although I didn’t know the five police officers who were killed, or the seven who were wounded in Dallas this week – I knew them. They were the folks I grew up with,” Biden said. “Being a cop wasn’t just what they did. It was who they were — like every officer who joined for essentially the same reason. There was something about them that made them think they could help, that they should serve, that they had a duty.”
from that poll
as with all images, click to enlarge
🙂
I miss Nash. I miss Nash’s morning menu for Trailmix Cafe.
I find myself still in the single-digits column, but it may also confirm my belief that Trump will not be the Gooperz nominee. If he’s losing traction, they’ll find a way to dump him.
Later.
huffpo:
Warren tore into the GOP on Thursday for exacerbating a judicial vacancy crisis, and repeatedly tried to force the Senate to confirm 17 judicial nominees stalled on the Senate floor. Republicans aren’t letting the nominees through because they don’t want to help President Barack Obama put any more of his judicial picks on the federal bench. They’d rather hold out in the hopes that Donald Trump will be in the White House next year to put forward more conservative nominees.
In the meantime, though, court vacancies are skyrocketing, judges are burning out and the federal judiciary is being stretched to its limits.
“Their view seems pretty simple: If government isn’t working for them or their rich friends or their right-wing allies, then they will simply refuse to let it work for anyone,” Warren said in a tirade on the Senate floor. “These courts do an enormous amount of work. Their work is not political… These nominees deserve votes.”
The Senate could confirm all 17 nominees in a matter of minutes, if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would allow votes to be held. Every single one of nominees has bipartisan support, and if confirmed, they would make an appreciable dent in the nation’s current 89 federal court vacancies. But when Warren formally requested that the Senate hold votes, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) objected. He said it’s up to Republicans, who control the chamber, to decide when or if judicial nominees get votes.
“Frankly, in light of the process that we do have, the senator knows this is not the appropriate process,” he said.
That could have been the end of it. But Warren went back to the microphone and tried again, this time calling for votes on nominees who have been waiting since last year. When Cornyn shut her down again, she kept at it, insisting that at least the nominees who have been waiting for longer than a year should get votes.
Um, it’s the shooter’s fault that he murdered 5 cops and maimed how many others, not the fault of collective “White America”. It’s much easier to blame collectives, I realize, and therefore easier to throw one’s hands up in resignation.
Let’s just disband all police departments. Problem solved. Too extreme? No more traffic stops. Bonus? Speed limits become irrelevant! Let’s make the USA like Westeros, but with guns and cars instead of swords and dragons. For the record, I prefer swords and dragons.
Proposal: for every gun forfeited to government by a racist, paranoid consevative, one arrogant, lazy liberal deletes their twitter account. THAT is a win-win. Ridiculous? So was Brexit, but that passed. Sleep on it, America.
No welcomes neccessary, hope all are well.
How manipuable must the general media-consuming population be for someone in an influential position to suppose it’s neccessary to GIVE PERMISSION to emote, one way or the other??? Good golly, Miss Molly.
Colonize Mars? Does this solar system REALLY need TWO planets full of idiots? I don’t know- I’m asking.
bink, welcome aboard or back whatever the case may be.
we seem to be talking at cross purposes if I read your comments right. perhaps we are suffering from what George saunders wrote in new Yorker:</
em>
Intellectually and emotionally weakened by years of steadily degraded public discourse, we are now two separate ideological countries, LeftLand and RightLand, speaking different languages, the lines between us down. Not only do our two subcountries reason differently; they draw upon non-intersecting data sets and access entirely different mythological systems.[….]
LeftLand and RightLand are housemates who are no longer on speaking terms. And then the house is set on fire.
Bink, looking at demographics in chart I posted earlier I do wonder if it is wise for Hillary to stoke white guilt given the obvious problems Democrats have with losing the white vote. Did seem rather strange to me she chose to talk this way in the aftermath of a black man killing white police officers, and saying it was because they’re white.
I wouldn’t worry, Mr. C. I’d tell you to just sit back and enjoy the Great Republican Implosion of 2016, but that may be cavalier amid the social strife we are currently experiencing. If Clinton can’t beat the man with a 3-word* vocabulary, it would behoove us to start questioning the efficacy of expressing thought verbally, and the implications of such an examination. I feel like I could have expressed that more succinctly.
*tremendous, fabulous, very
she doesn’t have the “white vote”…. she maybe has the “white women of a certain age vote” no matter what she says, but not the white men of any age so what difference does it make whether she tells it like it is and offends the guys even more than she already does?
Pat! Pat! Pat! Pat! (together now) Pat! Pat! Pat! (cheering)
Yeah, if you made it though that whole Saunders article, you deserve even more cheers. My eyes kept glazing over at “who are they part iii”.
bink, m.e.g.o. also…. george must have been on some pretty hard stuff when writing some of that…. lost me during some of the tangents… but gets credit for creativity.
Just read that the Dallas police chief’s son was killed in a shoot-out with cops in 2010. His son was bi-polar. Can we please address mental health support in addition to access to assault weapons?
Only one of these signs at my office; the office down the road went all out. Doubtful four signs are more effective than one.
Not at all.
Serena does it, again. Hi, Corey.
PatD: “what difference does it make”
Down ballot, look no further than 2014 to see what sacrificing white vote begets Democrats
touché
been getting a kick out of the mother of all comments from across the pond. liz the 1st must be rolling in her grave….so does this qualification also apply to all the prior prime ministers who were not mommies?
the guardian:
Andrea Leadsom has been widely criticised on social media for her reaction to the way the Times presented comments she made in an interview.
The energy minister said that being a mother was an advantage in the Tory leadership contest because it showed she had a “real stake” in Britain’s future.
Dallas SWAT activated around DPD HQ. Threat from a group from Houston. Backlash for killing the gunman with an explosive device delivered by robot?
How about if the police simply follow the procedures of their departments that might be good start
and then it might be a good idea if complaints were taken seriously –citizen review is aways helpful
I think she said the right thing
Shots fired at Dallas DPD headquarters.
*Or not. SWAT has weapons on parking garage next to police HQ, but media has backtracked confirmation of shots fired. Definitely someone in the DPD parking garage.
It’s not rocket science you can think black lives are undervalued and not think police officers should be killed….
This is from one of Mr. Crackers grandkids
What I mean when I say#blacklivesmatter. When I say this, I’m not saying that Mexican, Asian, White, Muslims, Christians, cops, and everyone else’s life doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is that black lives are just as precious to me as all other lives, and that I wish they were to everyone else. If you wish to take this personal and think that I am being offensive to your culture, or have very little disregard for officers that go out each day and risk their lives, to serve and protect, I’m happy to tell you that I don’t. Everyone deserves to live a long full life with freedom and feel safe, that I hope will be the promise that one day this country can offer to ALL citizens, regardless of your color, social economic status, immigration status and or priors. I truly believe it starts on a very personal level, with love and compassion for oneself and then other. We are all hurting, no need to hurt each other.
Hi, Bink. There’s no need to eliminate police forces. There is a need to to teach police forces who employs them. It’s never a good idea to shoot the people who pay your salary.
Sow Hillary is a criminally insane moron floating at the bottom of a septic tank with Bubba.